In My Opinion – Sippy Cups

by Juliemara

11.8.12

We made the switch to sippy cups around the 10 month mark. The girls were already holding their bottles without help so it was just a matter of getting them use to the different mouth piece and faster flow of the sippy cups. I got a good bit of advise from a fellow mom of twins. She told me if I want to teach them something new i.e. drinking from a cup, make them do it every time and after three days they will get it. This technique really works and not just for sippy cups for pretty much any thing you want your kids to learn. You can read more about my friend Cari and her cute twins Summer and Austin on her blow Twinkadinks.

At first we rotated sippy cups without much rhyme or reason, but after a few weeks of spills or unfinished cups we realized not all sippy cups are made the same and we figured out real quick which ones we prefer.
We were given several sippy cups as gifts and some were purchased on sale, they all work, but here is the rundown of cups we like and the ones we don’t of the styles we have tried.

They don’t spill, they are easy to clean they have two parts a top and a bottom which makes assembly very east and they are very inexpensive about $0.57 each, plus each pack comes with a cap for traveling with a full cup, but it stays attached to the rim of the cup so it won’t get lost. They are the big winner in our house.

Now for the rest of the pack. Please note we still have all of these in our sippy cup drawer and frequently use many of them just based on the fact that we have them and twins and the dishwasher doesn’t always get run when it’s full so it’s nice to have more than enough sippy cups on hand. These just require a little more brain power to deal with.
The below sippy cups are ranked in order of our second most favorite to least favorite…
These two sippy cups are pretty good. They each have three parts. The Purple and yellow cup by Playtex

(I think it’s funny that the same company that makes bras also makes sippy cups)has the top, bottom and a valve to prevent spilling. The handles are helpful but our girls don’t need them. They learn to hold a bottle without handles so they never needed the handles to hold a cup. They do use them if they are there. My biggest beef with this one is the colors, it looks dated and old, even though it’s brand new. The other issue I have with it is that the spot is hard, but after a while you can see little bite marks in the plastic, which is just gross. The Purple and pink cup is a Nuby product.

I like this one, especially because it doesn’t spill, the problem is that the figure 8 shaped nipple is really hard to get back into the plastic ring after washing and I don’t have time to be fighting with sippy cups.
Next up are the pink Nuby cups.

These cups are just difficult to assemble. The handles are removable, but for some reason we always put them back on after washing even though the girls don’t need them. Probably because I know that the minute we stop using them they will be lost forever and what if I need them later, so it’s just easier to keep the whole cup together.

But the real assembly issue comes from these notches that have to be lined up on the nipple and ring as well as on the separate handle piece.

If the three parts get twisted on even the slightest bit crooked the cup leaks everywhere. It’s mainly a time issue for me. If it takes more than one try for me to do it right, it just won’t work in our lives. So these too stay on the drying rack or in the sippy cup drawer until all the Take and Toss cups are dirty for the day.

have the issues that they do, because I LOVE the design. They are very mod. But the fact of the matter is that as cute as they are the valve to prevent spilling does not catch as easy as it should so it falls out resulting in milk spilled all over freshly bathed babies and living room pillows, NOT GOOD.

And even if the valve gets put in correctly the top is a bit tricky to screw on but the error can’t really be seen until there is milk everywhere. So much for good design.

Now I get into the cups that I really actually dislike and would throw away if I was a person who threw away things that still served a purpose, but I’m not so we keep them. I’m hopping some friends will come over and tell me how much they love these cups, then I can give them away and feel good about it.

While trying the get the nipple part back into the plastic ring while matching up the notches at the same time it pops though and I ave to start all over again, this will happen two or three times before I can get it in correctly.

And without fail every time I screw the top on this one I do it wrong and it leaks and leaks. I usually end up hand washing a Take & Toss cup at this point because I’m too frustrated to invest any more time in the cup that should be run over by the minivan. On the off chance that the top gets put on correctly the first time and I give the girls these cups, after a few minutes I realize that the air release hole is too small so it makes getting anything out of the cup really difficult. Again, I give up on these.

These cups have the same assembly as the taller Nuby cup previously mentioned and although still a pain to match up the notches on the two part lid, the larger size and softer spout part seems to make it slightly easier to get done correctly. I would go to these first is all my other first choices needed to be washed.

These next cups are by MAM a Swiss company and are popular all over the world. I saw them in the grocery store in Israel when we were there over the summer.

They are super cute and modern looking and have the oz measurements on the side which is very helpful if you are using to mix formula. But they should come with assembly instructions and are like a puzzle to put together.

Also the cap is extremely difficult to get off and when you have a hungry screaming baby a stuck cap can pretty much ruin your day. But the biggest issue with these cups is that in order for the baby to draw out the liquid they have to press their lips together on the spout really firmly, so this is difficult for a small baby to do. The cups are recommended for six months and up but there was no way my six months old had the strength to do this. By the time they were strong enough to get the liquid out the spout the flow was too slow and they would get frustrated with the cups and give up. SO we just retired these completely.

This next group are the Straw cups we have tried. Sometimes the girls seem to have no issues with the straw cups as far as getting the water (we only give them water in straw cups) out of the cup and other times they just can’t do it. I’m sure as they get older these will get more use.

These two cups are fine. The pink and green one is a Nuby and the blue and green is a Playtex.

The tops screw on easy, they don’t spill, they just have a lot of parts and the straws take some time to thread back though after disassembling for washing.

I would buy these again if we ever have the need for more straw cups.

And lastly, more cups that should be run over or stuffed down the garbage disposal. These Nuby Straw cups have all the same issues as their counterparts mentioned above.

The rubber straw part is difficult to get in place without it popping through and the top is tricky to screw on properly. They don’t spill once everything is assembled correctly, but they are really just more effort than they are worth, and they don’t even have a little turtle shell for the straw like the above two styles.

Don’t buy this kind.

So there you have it, my take on the sippy cup options. There are certainly other options out there that we could have tried but with most baby products there are endless possibilities and you just have to stop somewhere. Children are very adaptable and will make due with what they have. I on the other hand must have the product that will save me the most time and energy so that I can spend more time and energy just enjoying Talia and Jordan.

Every morning and every night when I lay them down in the living room to drink their milk I always kiss their heads and ell them how much I love them.

Side note: there is a cup that I have seen several of my friend using by Nuk that comes highly recommended.